Friday, February 6, 2009

Living with a tag of the World’s largest Democracy is not an easy task. Not at least when the Democracy is dependent on politics and the whole nation is being taught Democracy. Meaning of Democracy is imparting equal rights and opportunity to people to contribute in mainstream politics. To sustain Democracy is a responsibility of the Parliament, MLAs and MPs. Representatives of people chosen by the people themselves does not even formulate 0.0001% of the total population of our country.

The extension of this Democracy are the elected representatives at Panchayats, Villages and District level. However, even this collectively doesn’t make 1% of the total population. But this is where the tag of Democracy outshines. The moment these representatives reach this sphere, law and order differentiates for them and they enjoy special rights. No one can separate himself from the aura of Democracy and politics, ones reached. Hence it’s said that anyone, a Doctor, an engineer, a businessman, an unemployed, an illiterate and a dalit can become a politician. But ones an insider, no one can do anything else, but politics.

This is where the first lesson of Democracy begins. It points towards preserving a legacy and assuring security inside ones household. This practice negates the fact that power signifies 100 crore population of India. Out of the total 545 present members of Lok Sabha, around 15 % of them are in someway or the other related to big names in politics. The families which are taking the legacy forward are the ones who have actually made their way to the Parliament with hard work, by understanding true India, its villages and have actually felt for the nation.

When kids of big politicians entered politics, a new trend emerged altogether. The understanding was nothing but selfish instincts. Legacy can be seen as- Rahul Gandhi from Gandhi-Nehru family, Umar Abdullah from Abdullah family, Sukhbir Badal from Akali Dal’s Badal family and Supriya Sule, daughter of Sharad Pawar. Stalin and Kanimozhi, son and daughter respectively of Karunanidhi and Pankaj Singh, son of BJP chairperson Rajnath Singh are also the examples. Kalyan Singh- Rajbir Singh, Lalu Yadav- Rabri Devi; Meera Kumar, daughter of Babu Jagjeevan Ram; Reeta Bahuguna, daughter of Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna; Jaswant Singh, Murli Deoda, Pilot, Scindhia, Hudda, Sheila Dikshit etc…there is a long list of politicians who have made way for their children. Bala Saheb Thackeray’s political experiments though emerged like an alternative to legacy phenomenon. But even he succumbed to politics and had to pass on his legacy to his son, Uddhav Thackeray.

Democracy gets confined to a particular section as it reaches the village level too. This is evident from the fact that since last two decades around 20 lakh families have been solely holding power as a legacy. In the three tier system in villages around 38, 00,700 representatives are elected. Superficially, this seems alright where everyone has a right to stand for elections and even the politicians’ kids are elected by masses voting. The path to Parliament and Legislative Assembly is not that easy as it seems. It becomes very important to understand the complete reality and nuances of politics in Democracy.

Opting ticket from a political party is an enticing proposition because political parties have an organization of people who can work during the poll day. On a Lok Sabha seat there should be a cadre of at least 4- 5 thousand people. With this cadre, on the polling day, an opportunity to negotiate with other political party becomes easy. A youth willing to enter politics will take around 10 years to get associated with the influential class in politics. People will first elect them one after the other and later would consider them allies. But even this is not the solution.

In the present scenario of market and profit, Govt. has ignored people and corporate help can be seen everywhere on the field. The political parties declare names of candidate even before announcing the dates for election. This is done to ensure hassle free flow of money from corporate and others. The parties then involve themselves completely in formulating suitable policies. The influx of election fund from corporate and spending it on common voters is continuous. Presently, it has already started. The proposed candidates start benefitting from this as the code of ethics for elections is enforced upon the candidates only after the date of elections is announced. A vicious web of victory is designed and implemented before that. If common people are against the ruling power; the opposition benefits. They are loaded with all sorts of monetary help from the corporate. All the efforts are made in order to retain power in any case. This is an important lesson of Democracy and it goes through the path of market and profit. Profit and political awareness has lead to the consciousness of Democracy. It was said that earlier the villagers were unaware of whom to vote and hence sold their votes. But in the new era, Govt. and power sells itself and not the votes.

Specific policies benefitting a specific corporate house initiated the whole understanding. This has initiated a big game of business in which selling a vote one time doesn’t work, it is persistently carried out for 5 years. It is like a blank cheque of profit for some in power. Agreement or disagreement doesn’t count in the game of election politics. For every pillar to stand in power, it is important to state ones needs. Failing policies and breach in security has made the State and politics confront people. The judiciary and media became the stimulators. Media tried to control anger by broadcasting programs of felicitating the families of martyrs. And the corporate left no stones unturned to make it successful. There were advertisement and sponsors.

People lost their jobs due to failing policies but the executive and legislature with the help of Judiciary framed bail-out plans for companies facing losses. This was done to show that everything is fine even if it's not. Calling the whole crisis a global economic recession is a well played theory amidst total unemployment among people. If one pillar succumbs, other three supports the one and this is how the game of democracy works. This is not a common playground for everyone though. Democracy stands for equality but doesn’t implement it.

Democracy can well dream of Obama but can never permit him to break the vicious circle of Indian politics. Obama largely signifies youth which rests at Rahul-Priyanka and Modi-Mayawati. Before becoming the President of America, Obama couldn’t even pay his dues he took for studies. He faced all sorts of trouble one has to face in order to survive. And when the superpower was troubled, they saw Obama’s struggle as their victory. Politics in India still declares itself as the World’s largest Democracy but it's against politics and power that is camouflaged in Democracy.

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Punya Prasun Bajpai

Punya Prasun Bajpai is ZEE NEWS (India's first news and current affairs channel) prime time Anchor and Editor. Punya has more than 20 years experience in both print and electronic journalism. Recently, Prasun received the Indian Express Goenka award for excellence in journalism for the year 2005. The Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, conferred the award.